Campus News

Narratives of women inferiority dangerous — Amoloye-Adebayo

The protection of the rights of women occupies a centre place in Islamic Law, therefore, the “narratives of women inferiority are dangerous because they seek to dehumanise women, rob them of agency and legitimise the channels of perpetration of violence against women.” This was the thrust of the 274th Inaugural Lecture of the University of Ilorin, delivered by a Professor of Islamic Law, Azizat Omotoyosi Amoloye-Adebayo last Thursday (February 13, 2025.)

The Lecture, titled “Islamic Law and the Woman’s Agency”, was delivered under the Chairmanship of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Wahab Olasupo Egbewole, SAN.

According to the Inaugural Lecturer, the inspiration for the title of the Lecture came from a 12-year old poser from her earlier lecture, entitled “Islamic Law for Men? Or for Everyone?The Dilemmatic Question of a Muslim Woman.”

Describing Islamic Law as an “amalgamation of Shar’īah and Fiqh as both the divine and human component of the law”, Prof. Amoloye-Adebayo drew a distinctive line between feminism and gender, which, according to her,”emerged in reaction to the theory of male dominance in life experiences.”

The Inaugural Lecturer, who is the Head of the Department of Islamic Law, pointed out that the Judeo-Christian and Islamic origin of creation is biased to the extent of depicting the creation of woman as an after-thought, inferior or mere helpers to men, arguing that the woman is the other half of creation, the opposite of the man. She buttressed her view with quotation from the Holy Qur’an, “O People! reverence your Guardian-Lord, who created you from a single being and created from it, it’s mate and spread from these two, many men and women” ‘(Q4:1; Q39:6).

While stressing the need for synergy between man’s agency and woman’s agency, Prof. Amoloye-Adebayo said that most contemporary interpretations of Islamic law is informed by colonial androcentrism.

She, therefore, called for equitable relations in matters of Islamic Law and private affairs between men and women, and Islamic Law and public affairs between men and women, concerning leadership, spiritual and temporal.

According to the first Professor of Islamic Law at the University of Ilorin, “The emphasis on equitable relations is the bedrock of regulations in Islamic Law, as provided in Q57:25 that: ‘We sent aforetime our messengers with clear signs and sent down with the Book and the Balance (of Right and Wrong), that human beings may conduct themselves with equity” 

For women to grow out of unnecessary limiting factors to their self actualisation, Prof. Amoloye-Adebayo called on women to have the courage to pursue scholarship in Islamic Law, despite men’s domination of the field, so that they don’t use their life experiences to validate the toga of women inferiority.

The Inaugural Lecturer, who is the first female Faculty member in the Department of Islamic Law, University of Ilorin, described herself as a Woman Agent in the study of Islamic Law, and expressed the concern that it could take such a long time to produce a female Professor in Islamic Law.

Prof. Amoloye-Adebayo, who is also a member of the Editorial Board of UNILORIN Bulletin, canvassed for the encouragement of the scholarship of Muslim women in Islamic Law, saying that women should be encouraged to exercise the courage needed in a male dominated area of Islamic Law.

She also called for the amendment of the provisions of the Child’s Right Act, 2003 “to bring the Islamic law position on early marriage within its purview”. According to her, “It is believed that if the idea of the best interest of the child is given more prominence than the prohibition of marriages of young persons under 18 for early marriages, it will provide a religiously authentic basis for review of such marriages”. 

Prof. Amoloye-Adebayo who has so far supervised 300 undergraduate projects, 23 Master degree dissertations, has also graduated a Ph.D student. She has also served her Department, Faculty and the University Community on various standing and adhoc committees in the past two decades.

A researcher of international repute, the 274th Inaugural Lecturer had represented Africa in several world academic fora. In 2013, she presented a research on Transnational Judicial Dialogue at Pluricourts in Oslo, Norway and in 2019, she was also African Representative for Young Scholars Residential Fellowship Award in Law and Religion, International Centre for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS), Proro, Utah.

The well attended Lecture was graced by Principal Officers of the University, senior academics and dignitaries from far and wide.